DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters or themes affiliated, stoichiometry, poor hygiene, auras of anger, good and poor (or nonexistant) study habits, stupid marks, etc. etc.


Chapter Two: Marks and to Pauline's House

"I will defeat this equation..."

Phil pointed angrily and glared menacingly at his Chemistry textbook, earning a few stares from passersby, which he ignored. A lesser textbook would have crumbled or burned on the spot, but this one stayed solid and flame-free; it was a fiesty tome, Phil had to admit. But then again, doing homework while sitting in a busy school hallway wasn't exactly the best thing to do if you needed to concentrate.

"Phil, what're you doing?" Corey asked, sitting nearby and giving Phil an amused look.

"This stoichiometry question won't cooperate!" Phil exclaimed, stepping onto the book angrily, then yelling at it, "Succumb to my authority, peon!"

"I swear, Phil, lay off the crack," Corey rolled his eyes, going through his MP3 player for another song of anger music.

"Hey, I'm clean," Phil said, pointing at himself, "...For a week, anyway."

"So, the last time you washed your hair was...last week?" Kyle smirked, coming around the corner with Nat.

Kyle carried a gym bag, slung over his shoulder, and Nat had a towel draped over his neck, while he kicked his used gym clothes along the floor. Both had just been in track practice; both were sprinters, Kyle was a triple jumper, and Nat was going to take part in shot put and the long jump when the inter-school track meet took place the next week.

"Not that kind of clean," Corey said calmly, then he tried to change the subject, "How'd your report cards turn out?"

"For your information, I washed my hair five days ago," Phil said calmly, hands on hips, earning more funny (or disgusted) looks from more passersby.

"Ew..." Nat cringed, staying as far from Phil as possible, while keeping within reach of his locker, "That's gross!"

"My average was 75.4, overall," Kyle sighed, ignoring Phil and Nat, "Barely scraped through, but I'll be able to stick with you guys for Grade 12."

"Meh. I got 54.2," Corey shrugged.

"I owned both of you!" Nat said loudly, grinning, "My average is a 78.4!"

"You have a spare period, so you're only taking seven courses at once, and three of those are kinds of Physical Education," Phil pointed out, "Weight training, Fitness, and Grade 11 Phys. Ed."

"Oh yeah?" Nat glared at the former jounin in the corner of his eye, "And what's your average?"

"81.9, and I wasn't even trying," Phil informed him contentedly with a self-satisfied nod, holding up his arms with his hands in fists for his victory pose, "Aw, yeah!"

"...EH?!" Nat's jaw dropped and his eyes went completely white, "MARKS LIKE THAT AREN'T POSSIBLE!"

"So, how'd practice go?" Corey asked, not really caring about the answer, but exactly interested in the subject at hand.

"It was all right," Kyle shrugged, again doing his best to ignore the other two boys, "Shaun landed weird after one of his high jumps, though. He's gone to the nurse's office to get that checked out," Kyle smirked, "Michelle's helping out there today; I wonder how she'll react to his injury."

"She'll probably make a high-pitched, sad and surprised sound in the back of her throat, then treat Shaun as best she can," Corey guessed, knowing how Michiko usually reacted when he or Deniizu got hurt, "What about Hinata, Isaac and Denise?"

"I didn't see Isaac, so he probably never showed up to watch practice," Nat said, thinking with a hand on his chin, "I think Hinata was studying on the bleachers, so maybe she's on her way now, and Denise is part of cheerleading, and they were practicing while we were, so she's probably still getting changed."

Nat couldn't keep a grin from appearing on his face; he had noticed the six cheerleaders well enough. The school's cheerleaders were not actually an official team; they didn't participate in any competitions. But they still dressed in school-coloured uniforms, and they still came out to cheer during each game; their routines were simple, but they did their best anyway.

"Denise looked good in her uniform, even if she was always arguing with the other cheerleaders," Nat commented, oblivious to a sudden aura of anger coming from behind him, "The skirts were really short, and she showed up a lot with that tight shirt, and-."

"EXCUSE ME!" Denise exclaimed, suddenly appearing at Nat's right and punching him squarely in the jaw, "WHO'RE YOU CALLING A SKANK?" (A/N: 'who're' looks so bad...)

"Shit...! I WASN'T CALLING YOU A SKANK!" Nat exclaimed, sitting on the floor and rubbing the side of his face, "I said you looked good!"

"There you go!" Denise yelled, kicking Nat hard in the kidney, now.

"It's a compliment!" Nat whimpered, keeling over on the ground.

"No, it's not!" Whack!

"Ano...what's happening...?"

Hinata showed up around the corner at that moment, with Michelle right beside her, and Isaac following silently behind.

"Are both of you fighting again?" Michelle added, with a small sigh.

Hinata was carrying three science textbooks in her arms, as well as a filled bookbag on her shoulder, diligent with her studies as ever. Michelle, on the other hand, had a backpack with just one text and notebook in it, and was carrying a novel that she meant to read on the bus; she read more casual books than educational ones. Isaac wasn't carrying anything; all the people in the hallway guessed that he had skipped all this classes that day. Again. Like usual.

"Hey, Phil, Corey," Michelle waved, saluting slightly, "What're you two doing here? School ended over an hour ago."

"Didn't feel like going home," Phil answered nonchalantly, while Corey shrugged.

"...right..." Michelle nodded slowly, thinking, You never feel like going home...

"Hey, how's Shaun's ankle?" Nat asked, picking himself up from the ground, "You were helping out at the nurse's office, right?"

"He's hurt? I left early; I needed to go to the library," Michelle answered, suddenly wanting to go back to the office, "You guys ready to go?"

"Yeah," Kyle answered, shouldering his now-full backpack, while Nat nodded in the background.

"Where're you going?" Phil asked, already turning back to his textbook.

"Visiting Pauline," Michelle answered, quickly getting an overnight bag from her locker, then helping Hinata close her own locker, "And us girls're having a sleepover when the guys leave. A sort of 'goodbye to sanity before exam time' thing."

"...Girls are weird," Phil rolled his eyes, before sitting down on the floor again, "They have all these sleepover rituals that don't actually help anything."

Denise started stomping over to the older boy, to kick him in the side, but Michelle quickly linked arms with her and bodily dragged her down the hallway.

"No, Denise," Michelle tsked, "Remember what we learned in kindergarten: Violence bad."

"Hah. As if," Corey smirked, before raising a hand lazily in farewell, "Enjoy yourselves, pacifists."

"Yeah, you too, Nazi," Denise grinned, with a 'Hail Hitler' salute, which earned her a dig in the side from Michelle's elbow, "Ok, who's being violent now?"

"We'll see you all on Monday," Isaac nodded, and he and the students were gone.

Just as the school nurse got started on bandaging Shaun's ankle, a knock was heard at the office door.

"I'll be right back, Shaun," the nurse smiled, then said over her shoulder while she disappeared around the corner, "Everyone else has gone home for the weekend, so I'm the only one left."

"Sorry for keeping you so late," Shaun apologized, sitting on the examination table patiently, "You're probably looking forward to the weekend."

"Oh, it's no problem," there was a pause, then, "Shaun, you have visitors."

The nurse came back into her small office, with Michelle, Kyle, Hinata and Nat following right behind her. Upon seeing Shaun's swollen ankle, Michelle clapped her hands to her mouth, muffling a yelp which ended up sounding like a squeak in the back of her throat; Kyle and Nat couldn't help but share knowing glances. The four students all meant to wait by the door, but the nurse pulled Michelle with her by the elbow.

"Michelle, you still need 15 minutes to round off that last volunteer hour," Ms. Hamilton said, referring to the 40 hours of unpaid work that all high school students were required to complete before graduation, "Help Shaun with his bandage."

"But shouldn't you-" Michelle started, then got an evil look from her mentor, "Uh, sure! No problem!"

Ms. Hamilton knows Michelle and Shaun are dating, Hinata realized, She probably thinks it would be cute to watch them...

"You told her?" Shaun said in a low voice, while the nurse wrote on a clipboard and Michelle picked up the bandage; he and Michelle had wanted to keep their relationship low-key.

"Someone else told her," Michelle answered solemnly, fiddling a bandage between her fingers, "It wasn't me!"

It was probably Mika, Shaun thought, annoyed, She's like the queen of gossip, with both students and teachers.

"Keep that bandage tight," Ms. Hamilton said sternly, startling the couple, "It's a very minor sprain, but Shaun doesn't want to risk his chances at next week's track meet, now do you, Shaun? Of course you don't," she nodded to herself, not bothering to give Shaun a chance to answer.

The tall 17-year-old shook his head silently, and Kyle sweatdropped; the school's nurse was a nice person, and she had good intentions, but she sometimes appeared a little overbearing. Her 'of course you don't' sounded more like a threat than a concerned comment.

"Guys, we're going to be stuck here for a while," Michelle said to the three at the door, "You guys go ahead and meet up with Isaac and Denise at the bus stop. We'll catch up."

"All right," Hinata nodded, and the two boys joined her while she left.

"...what was your report card's average?" Michelle asked after a moment.

"A well-earned 87.3," Shaun answered with a nod, "You?"

"...72.6," Michelle said glumly, carefully wrapping Shaun's ankle, "Everyone else got a higher average..."

"What about Denise and Isaac?" Shaun asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ok, they got 51.8 and 58.6, respectively, but that hardly counts-"

"Then not everyone else has a higher mark."

So supportive...so cute... Ms. Hamilton thought, arranging the thermometers on her desk.

"...Whatever, Shino-sensei," Michelle mumbled, hiding a small smile.

"Man, I'm hungry..." Kyle put a hand on his grumbling stomach, frowning as their bus reached the subway station, "Think we could get something to eat?"

"Pauline's mom will feed us when we get there," Denise answered, getting off the bus and walking down the station's stairs to where they would wait for a subway train.

"That'll take another 45 minutes!" Kyle exclaimed, then pointed to a newsstand that was within the bus terminal before following down the stairs, "There's a stand right there! I'll buy a chocolate bar; give me a minute!"

"There's the train we need to take," Nat said, pointing when they reached the subway platform, "By the time you buy something, the train will be gone, and we'll have to wait another 20 minutes."

"I'll buy you guys a black cherry soda, or something," Kyle coaxed, mentioning Denise's favourite drink, "Let's go."

"I hate black cherry," Nat said, narrowing his eyes.

"Nat, Hinata, you guys go ahead," Denise said surely, wanting her soda, "We'll meet you at the manga store beside the Korean barbecue place."

"But-" Hinata started to protest.

"Go," Isaac said shortly, pushing both of them into the open doors of the train.

The train doors closed behind them, in perfect timing to when they got inside.

"Bye, guys," Denise smiled, waving at her schoolmates' shocked faces while the train pulled out of the station, "Now, Kyle. Buy me that black cherry soda."

Now Hinata and Nat were left to travel alone together. You can guess where the problems were.

First, there was an extremely long, rather awkward and silent ride on the subway train. Hinata would repeatedly open her mouth and try to start a conversation, but then she would turn bright red, thinking that whatever she was going to say was too stupid, and clam up completely while playing with her fingers. Every ten minutes or so, she would do this, without breaking or altering the cycle in the slightest, not that Nathan noticed; he was busy looking out the window the entire time. One of the other train passengers, however, thought it was cute; that was something.

At a certain point, Nat had been annoyed by the silence and had asked Hinata what her average had been. After hearing that it was a 97.2, he promptly blacked out for the rest of the bus ride. Hinata was a hard worker, and no mistake.

Finally, they got off their stop and needed to find the right streetcar. Nathan jumped out of the subway train enthusiastically, ready for an adventure in Chinatown, while Hinata stepped off onto the platform in her usual graceful, demure way. After looking right and left, Nathan started running towards the streetcars, then stopped abruptly when he realized something, and turned to Hinata with a defeated look.

"I don't know which route we're supposed to take," the blonde-haired boy admitted sheepishly, looking down at his blue sneakers.

Hinata smiled shyly, not wanting to laugh for fear of hurting Nat's feelings, then said patiently, "Um...We can take any route. They all go through Chinatown before branching off."

"...eh?"

Nat looked at the streetcars that were waiting for passengers confusedly for a moment.

Hey, now that you mention it...Naruto thought, before breaking out a grin and laughing at himself.

"Oh, yeah!" Nat exclaimed, clapping a hand on Hinata's back, causing her to stumble, "I forgot Denise told us that! You're a lifesaver, Hinata!"

"You'd have figured it out eventually..." Hinata blushed.

"C'mon!" Nat yelled, grabbing Hinata's hand and pulling her towards the nearest car, "Let's go before the others catch up; I want to be the first to get to Pauline's house!"

...Neither of us know where Pauline lives, Hinata thought, shaking her head mentally while she got onto the streetcar, We made plans with the others to meet at a manga store.

Esperwen: Ok, I'm updating next week! Unless I die before then. Something I learn in Psychology 101: the highest suicide rate is with university/college students. And the most suicidal country is Japan. So, if you're a post-secondary student in Japan, poor you.

Shino: ...that had nothing to do with anything!

Esperwen: Says you. Now reader, kindly review. If you're still reading, at this point. By the way, if you are, thanks for sticking by the Portal series for so long. There are only like 40 of you, and it's seriously something I'm thankful for.